Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár (
Life and career
Lehár was born in the northern part of
While his younger brother
He is most famous for his
Lehár was also associated with the operatic tenor
Lehár and the Third Reich
Lehár's relationship with the
On 12 January 1939 and 30 April 1940 Lehár personally received awards from Hitler in Berlin and Vienna, including the Goethe Medal.[8] On Hitler's birthday in 1938 Lehár had given him as a special gift a red Morocco leather volume in commemoration of the 50th performance of The Merry Widow.[9]
Later years
He died aged 78 in 1948 in
Honours
- He was elected an honorary citizen of Sopron in 1940.
- In 1940 Hitler awarded him the Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft.
- There is a street in Vienna named after him. Additionally, several towns in the Netherlands have named streets after him (e.g. in The Hague, Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht, Eindhoven and Tilburg). Also, there are streets in Sarajevo and Pula named after him, and in Prague as well.
- Asteroid M.P.C. 54177).[11]
Stage works
Lehár recording
External audio | |
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The Merry Widow, Lovro von Matačić conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Eberhard Waechter and Nicolai Gedda in 1963 |
In 1908, the German branch of The Gramophone Company Ltd (afterwards HMV) issued twelve extracts (mostly ensembles) from Lehár's latest operetta, Der Mann mit den drei Frauen, with the composer conducting. The singers included Mizzi Günther, Louise Kartousch and Ludwig Herold.[12]
In 1929 and 1934, Lehár had conducted for Odeon Records The Land of Smiles and Giuditta, starring Richard Tauber, Vera Schwarz and Jarmila Novotná. A 1942 Vienna broadcast of his operetta Paganini conducted by the composer has survived, starring soprano, Esther Réthy and tenor, Karl Friedrich. A 1942 Berlin radio production of Zigeunerliebe with Herbert Ernst Groh, conducted by Lehár, also survives.
In 1947, Lehár conducted the
Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a set of discs recording the 1939 Saarbrücken concert of Lehár's works by German State Transmitter Saarbrücken conducted by Franz Lehár himself was discovered in East German state archives. This was released on CDs by Classic Produktion Osnabrück in 2000.
Anecdotes
Gustav Mahler and his young wife Alma went to see Lehár's The Merry Widow in Vienna and loved it so much that they danced to its tunes as soon as they were home. From memory they played the waltz on the piano, but could not remember the exact run of one passage. The next day they went to Vienna's main music shop Doblinger , but hesitated to admit that they were looking for the score of what would be considered a "popular" operetta. While Mahler distracted the staff by questioning them about the sales of his own compositions, Alma browsed through the music score of The Merry Widow. As soon as they were out on the street, Alma sang the complete waltz to Mahler.[13]
References
Informational notes
Citations
- ^ von Peteani, Maria (1950). Franz Lehár. Seine Musik – sein Leben. Vienna, London: Glocken.
- ^ Lada Duraković and Marijana Kokanović Marković, "Pulsko razdoblje Franza Lehára (1894–1896)" [The period of Franz Lehár in Pula (1894−1896)], Arti musices: Hrvatski muzikološki zbornik 50/1–2 (2019), 301–320.
- ^ "Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß", German text and English translation, andrerieutranslations.com
- ^ Informationen des Kulturpolitischen Archivs im Amt für Kulturpflege. Berlin 9. Januar 1935; cited in Frey (1999), pp. 305f;
Fred K. Prieberg: Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945. CD-ROM, self published, Kiel 2004, p. 4166. - ^ Elke Fröhlich (ed.): Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Teil I Aufzeichnungen 1923–1945, vol 5: December 1937 – July 1938. K. G. Saur, München 2000, p. 313.
- ^ Frey (1999), pp. 338f.
- ^ Peter Herz : "Der Fall Franz Lehár. Eine authentische Darlegung von Peter Herz". In: Die Gemeinde 24 April 1968.
- ^ Günther Schwarberg: Dein ist mein ganzes Herz. Die Geschichte des Fritz Löhner-Beda, der die schönsten Lieder der Welt schrieb, und warum Hitler ihn ermorden ließ. Steidl, Göttingen 2000, p. 128, 157.
- ^ Frey (1999), p. 326.
- ^ "(85317) Lehar". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ J. R. Bennett & W. Wimmer, A Catalogue of Vocal Recordings from the 1898–1925 German Catalogues of The Gramophone Company Limited (Lingfield, Oakwood Press, 1967), pp. 86, 143, 196
- ^ Norman Lebrecht, The Book of Musical Anecdotes, The Free Press, New York 1985, p. 277
Sources
- ISBN 3-458-16960-1
Further reading
- Bordman, Gerald. American Operetta. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
- Schirmer Books, 2001.
- Grun, Bernard. Gold and Silver: The Life and Times of Franz Lehár. New York: David McKay Co., 1970.
- Melchior, Paul. Franz Lehár musical, Pascal Maurice éditeur, Paris, 2012, ISBN 978-2-908681-27-7(in French, German and English), second edition : Franz Lehár's musical, etc., 2015.
- Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1983
External links
- Works by or about Franz Lehár at Internet Archive
- Recording Alfie Boe's Franz Lehár: Love was a Dream
- Free scores by Franz Lehár at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Musical Theatre Guide page
- Franz Lehár at IMDb
- Vocal score to Alone at Last (1915)
- Vocal score to Gypsy Love (1911)
- Newspaper clippings about Franz Lehár in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW